Nostalgia

When I was very young Granny taught me and my cousins to play Canasta. I'm twenty nine years old now and I hardly know a soul that knows what Canasta is, or for that matter would want to play. But it's a good game to play on a cold day - a day that you can concentrate on a hand of cards and look out the window. I love Canasta.

My parents were never much on take out, we seldom had, what I would refer to as a hunt and peck night. Whereas, you just get in the kitchen and hunt and peck for what you can find. But occasionally we would order a pizza or cook a frozen one at home when schedules got really hectic. On those nights that we had pizza we also had plain Lays or Ruffles potato chips and pickles around the table. Naturally, now when I have pizza, which is much more frequent than it was in those days, I love to have a hand full of chips and a pickle to go along with a slice or two. When friends see me doing this they always ask why? My answer never changes, it's just the way I have always done it. That's the way I like it.

When I was really little and was staying at Ami and Gar's house (Aunt and Uncle), Ami would often make Kool Aid for me to drink. She made it in a big plastic pitcher and while she was making it she always let me sit up on the counter and watch her. With the Kool Aid powder in the bottom and the right amount of water she would pull out a orange plastic spoon and stir that batch. She would always spin the spoon around really fast and then let it go. The spoon would stir itself for a while…then I would have to try. I rarely make Kool Aid but every time I do I have to give her old spoon trick another shot. I can't resist.

Nostalgia. The bridge that gaps the past and the present. The silent reminders of a different time and a different place. Smells, sounds, familiar settings and similarities that draw our minds to wonder back through the years. Over the river and through the woods of time to those places that bring back those warm feelings of belonging and entitlement. Back to my family and the faces of my neighbors and friends over the years. The same nostalgia that led me to write this blog and to do so many other things. Why do we need it? It's love…it's the things that we can't necessarily see or touch at the moment but we can always feel. We need this collection of ideas to reassure us on those days that we are not so sure. To guide us through the darkness like a friend along the way. Nostalgia - stay with me.